Letter: Con Edison unfair to workers
The son of a locked-out worker holds a sign outside Consolidated Edison headquarters, in Manhattan. Consolidated Edison and the union representing its employees are returning to the bargaining table. (July 5, 2012) Credit: AP
It's been more than two weeks since Con Edison locked out its 8,500 union workers and replaced them with 5,000 managers ["Con Ed restores health benefit," News, July 16]. Since then, we've had power outages and reductions during the heat wave. This is totally unacceptable.
Con Ed wants to replace union workers' guaranteed defined benefit pensions with risky 401(k) plans, which the union's leaders fiercely reject. I don't blame them. Con Ed's chief executive, Kevin Burke, has an annual pay package of $11 million, plus a guaranteed $18 million pension.
Would he replace his pension with a 401(k) plan? I doubt it. In his case, CEO stands for "compensation excessively overpaid."
New Yorkers have the highest utility rates of any city in the continental United States and some of the poorest service. Why does Con Ed need 5,000 managers to supervise 8,500 workers? Its management level is much too top-heavy.
If Con Ed cut its management staff and slashed Burke's compensation, we would have lower rates and better service.
Richard Reif, Flushing
